"Support the troops" has become an empty slogan.

[democrank]

I`d expect empty slogans from some members of Congress if they were trying to sell the idea of free plane rides for their third cousins, but using empty talk when discussing bloody death is inexcusable.

What exactly does "support the troops" mean and who`s doing it? How much calamity can we overlook just to allow a phony declaration of victory for Bush`s crazed game of King of the Hill? How many more legless veterans and broken minds will we accept before we demand an end to this madness?

Turn on your television any time of the day or night and you`ll hear the same crap from the same mouths. "Embolden the enemy" or "Cut and run" or "Fight them there so we don`t have to fight them here." Men and women alike, each trying to out-tough the other, taking potshots at the so-called weaklings. Apparently, this isn`t the time for reason over revenge. Instead, ther`s a daily rat-a-tat-tat substituting pre-approved talking points for substantive dialogue. We`ve dumbed the process down so far that sending a soldier back to Iraq for the third time is a sign of support, but demanding that no more be killed is not. It`s as sick and twisted as Republican approval of Bush`s demented, disturbing occupation of Iraq. There`s still a big chunk out there that seems to think we own Iraq. Apparently it`s our prize for having withstood the horrors of September 11th. We`ll show `em, won`t we?

There has to be a day of reckoning, a day when empty war talk is rejected for its pitiful orbit and its shortsighted value. There has to be a day ahead when "support the troops" means one thing.... bring them home where they belong.

Steve Mason, a decorated Vietnam combat veteran, wrote this in his book, Johnny`s Song....

Since Vietnam,
three things
hold my universe together:
gravity, centrifugal force
and guilt.

It is not strange, therefore,
that the war is over for me
just like it`s over for you.
Over
And
over again....

[BOSSHOG]

1. Because it has been promoted

by shallow empty, marginally educated Americans (conservatives.) The same assholes who blather on and lie about how patriotic they are are the same ones who say the deaths of our kids in Iraq is no big deal because more die in carwrecks, and the soldiers are volunteers and know what they got into and most of those returning home after their tours are lying about PTSD. "Conservatives" have been the scum of society for years and continue to be, spreading their lies and ignorance and continuing to be lead around by the nose by those who know they can get away with it.

[AX10]

2. The same ones who ended the Dixie Chicks Country "Music"...

career.

[blondeatlast]

3. I care deeply about what's happening to the soldiers; unfortunately,

that's too verbose for a magnet on the bumper of my car. Yet I'm willing to bet I think more about their plight and care more about them every day than any five cars with that ubiquitous sticker.

I say let's do away with that phrase forever on DU. In fact, I'm one of those who likes to parse out the tired, manufactured rhetoric of the RRRight and I call posters who repeat the TPs on it.

I could not agree with you more. Recommended; your post should be required reading.

The RRR wants to make complicated issues like war, civil rights, the economy, and freedom into sound bites because they have no ethics to support their side on the tough issues.

We need to lead the way in stopping them.

[Lone_Wolf]

4. It is a technique that stops rational thought...

It is very effective at doing that too.

For example, if the Democrats oppose Bush's budget proposal, they will be assailed for "not supporting the troops."

[blondeatlast]

5. If I could teach the lazy lapdogs in the media one thing and one thing only, it would be this phrase

"It's a WAR, it just isn't that simple. Please elaborate. Why is (___) aiding the terrorists/not supporting the troops/etc, ad infinitum?"

The media needs a giant kick in its prodigious lazy ass.

Hey, I can dream all I want...

[blondeatlast]

6. "Has become?" Actually, it always was an empty slogan.

It's short, it's rhythmic, it resonates with people for whom war is simple, good vs. bad guys stuff. If only...

It's also anonymous--the troops are a faceless group that represents AMERICA, by God, not scared, exhausted individuals with families and troubles of their own.

[Hosnon]

8. Yes. It seems to assume an opposite group of people who do not support

the troops.

And I can't imagine any reasonable individual advocating harm to the troops.

[Skittles]

7. I send postcards and to the troops every day

and care packages and phone cards almost weekly

[treestar]

9. The appeal to American narcissism

That the only reason the war should end is the damage to "our troops" and nothing to do with the people in Iraq who are suffering - and on the right, they just use "our troops" to claim we have no right to question the Decider. "Our troops" are depicted as 100% Republicans who are so weak they cannot fight if anyone criticizes the Decider (it hurts their morale). We are supposed to be guilted into supporting the war just because "our troops" can't take it if we don't.

It is all cynical use of the individuals who are basically an arm of us. We, the People are responsible for the damage we have caused by sending "our troops" who are, after all, a weapon, to wreck havoc on other countries. What they do is our fault and our responsibility. But somehow we think we can evade it by making a sacred cow of "our troops."